Maryland’s Network of Family Support Centers

Maryland’s Network of 25 Family Support Centers provide free, comprehensive services to families, targeting parents and their children from birth through age three. Funding is provided by the Maryland State Department of Education, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, private foundations, corporations, and individuals.

Family Support Centers:

Promote the optimal development of young children through the provision of parent/child activities and a wide range of child development services;

Assist parents to develop more effective parenting skills and fulfill their aims related to school, employment and family life;

Provide supportive networks among parents in local communities; and

Connect parents and their children to public and private agencies and informal community resources that can help them.

core services offered at Family Support Centers:

Infant/toddler program: quality infant/toddler care and assessment while parents are on site;

Early Head Start

Since 1995, Maryland Family Network has integrated Early Head Start (EHS) funding and standards into Maryland’s Family Support Center network in five counties and Baltimore City. These enhanced programs strengthen the state’s early childhood support system, raising Maryland’s profile nationally in the process.

Today, the nine EHS Family Support Centers that receive funding represent an investment of millions of dollars annually in federal and state funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE). They serve children under the age of three and their families. Maryland Family Network is the largest EHS grantee in Maryland.